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HMS Temeraire (1798)
Encyclopedia
HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun second-rate
ship of the line
of the Royal Navy
. Launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars
, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought only one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar
, but became so well known for her actions and her subsequent depictions in art and literature that she has been remembered as 'The Fighting Temeraire'.
Built at Chatham Dockyard
, Temeraire entered service on the Brest
blockade with the Channel Fleet
. Her duties were tedious and seldom relieved by any action with the French fleet. The first incident of note came when a group of sailors, hearing rumours they were to be sent to the West Indies at a time when peace with France seemed imminent, refused to obey orders, so committing an act of mutiny. The mutiny eventually failed and a number of the mutineers were tried and executed. Laid up during the Peace of Amiens, Temeraire returned to active service with the resumption of the wars with France, again serving with the Channel Fleet. She was asked specifically to join Horatio Nelson's
blockade of the Franco-Spanish fleet in Cadiz
in 1805, and at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October, Temeraire went into action immediately astern of Nelson's flagship, . During the battle Temeraire came to the rescue of the beleaguered Victory, and fought and captured two French ships.
Temeraire returned to public renown in Britain, and after undergoing substantial repairs was employed blockading the French fleets and supporting British operations off the Spanish coasts. She went out to the Baltic
in 1809, defending convoys against Danish gunboat attacks, and by 1810 was off the Spanish coast again, helping to defend Cadiz against a French army. Her last action was against the French off Toulon
, when she came under fire from shore batteries. Temeraire returned to Britain in 1813 for repairs, but was laid up. She was converted to a prison ship, spending until 1819 moored in the River Tamar
in this role. Further service saw her move to Sheerness
as a receiving ship, then a victualling depot, and finally a guardship. The Admiralty
ordered her to be sold in 1838, and she was towed up the Thames to be broken up.
This final voyage was depicted in an oil painting by J. M. W. Turner
, entitled The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838
. The painting was greeted with critical acclaim, which has endured. In 2005 it was voted Britain's favourite painting.
on 9 December 1790, to a design developed by Surveyor of the Navy
Sir John Henslow. She was one of three ships of the Neptune class
, alongside her sisters and . Temeraire was laid down at Chatham in July 1791. The initial stages of her construction were overseen by Master Shipwright Thomas Pollard, though he was succeeded by Edward Sison on 25 June 1795, and Sison oversaw her completion. Temeraire was launched on 11 September 1798 and the following day was taken into the graving dock to be fitted for sea. Her hull was fitted with copper sheathing
, a process that took two weeks to complete. Refloated, she finished fitting out, and received her masts and yards. Her final costs came to £73,241, and included £59,428 spent on the hull, masts and yards, and a further £13,813 on rigging and stores.
She was commissioned on 21 March 1799 under Captain Peter Puget
, becoming the second ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Temeraire. Her predecessor had been the 74-gun third rate , a former French ship taken as a prize
at the Battle of Lagos
on 19 August 1759 by a fleet under Admiral Edward Boscawen
. This Temeraire retained her French name after her capture, and served during the Seven Years' War
, before being sold out of the service in 1784. Puget was only in command until 26 July 1799, during which time he oversaw the process of fitting the new Temeraire for sea. He was superseded by Captain Thomas Eyles
on 27 July 1799, while the vessel was anchored off St Helens, Isle of Wight
.
under the overall command of Admiral Lord Bridport. The Channel Fleet was at that time principally engaged in the blockade of the French port of Brest
, and Temeraire spent several long cruises of two or three months at a time patrolling the area. Eyles was superseded during this period by Temeraires former commander, Captain Puget, who resumed command on 14 October 1799, and the following month Temeraire became the flagship of Rear-Admiral James Whitshed.
Lord Bridport had been replaced as commander of the Channel Fleet by Admiral Lord St Vincent in mid-1799, and the long blockade cruises were sustained throughout the winter and into the following year. On 20 April 1800 Puget was superseded as commander by Captain Edward Marsh. Marsh commanded Temeraire throughout the remainder of that year and for the first half of 1801, until his replacement, Captain Thomas Eyles arrived to assume command on 31 August. Rear-Admiral Whitshed had also struck his flag by now, and in his place Temeraire became the flagship of Rear-Admiral George Campbell
. By this time the Second Coalition against France had collapsed, and negotiations for peace were underway at Amiens
. Lord St Vincent had been promoted to First Lord of the Admiralty, and command of the Channel Fleet passed to Admiral Sir William Cornwallis
. Anticipating the imminent end of the war, Temeraire was taken off blockade duty and sent to Bantry Bay
to await the arrival of a convoy, which she would then escort to the West Indies. Many of the crew had been serving continuously in the navy since the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, and had looked forward to returning to England now that peace seemed imminent. On hearing rumours that instead they were to be sent to the West Indies, a group of around a dozen men began to agitate for the rest of the crew to refuse orders to sail for anywhere but England.
and refusing orders to leave, began to argue with the officers. Captain Eyles asked to know their demands, which were an assurance that Temeraire would not go to the West Indies, but instead would return to England. Eventually Rear-Admiral Campbell came down to speak to the men, and having informed them that the officers did not know the destination of the ship, he ordered them to disperse. The men went below decks and the incipient mutiny appeared to have been quashed. The ringleaders, numbering around a dozen, remained determined however, and made discreet inquiries among the rest of the crew. Having eventually determined that the majority of the crew would, if not actually support a mutiny, at least not oppose it, and that the Temeraires crew would be supported by the ship's marines
as well as the crews of some of the other warships in Bantry Bay, they decided to press ahead with their plans. The mutiny began with the crew closing the ship's gunports, effectively barricading themselves below deck. Having done so they refused orders to open them again, jeered the officers and threatened violence. The crew then came up on deck and once again demanded to know their destination and refused to obey orders to sail for anywhere but England. Having presented their demands they returned below decks and resumed the usual shipboard routine as much as they could.
Alarmed by the actions of the Temeraires crew, Campbell met with Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell
the following day and informed him of the mutineers' demands. Mitchell reported the news to the Admiralty
while Campbell returned to Temeraire and summoned the crew on deck once more. He urged them to return to duty, and then dismissed them. Meanwhile discipline had begun to break down among the mutineers. Several of the crew became drunk, and some of the officers were struck by rowdy seamen. When one of the marines who supported the mutiny was placed in irons for drunken behaviour and insolence, a crowd formed on deck and tried to free him. The officers resisted these attempts and as sailors began to push and threaten them, Campbell gave the order for the marines to arrest those he identified as the ringleaders. The marines hesitated, but then obeyed the order, driving the unruly seamen back and arresting a number of them, who were immediately placed in irons. Campbell ordered the remaining crew to abandon any mutinous actions, and deprived of its leaders, the mutiny collapsed, though the officers were on their guard for several days afterwards and the marines were ordered to carry out continuous patrols.
News of the mutiny created a sensation in England, and the Admiralty ordered Temeraire to sail immediately for Spithead
while an investigation was carried out. Vice-Admiral Mitchell was granted extraordinary powers regarding the death sentence
and Temeraires marine complement was hastily augmented for the voyage to England. On the ship's arrival, the 14 imprisoned ringleaders were swiftly court-martialled in two batches aboard , anchored in Portsmouth
, the first held on 6 January 1802, the second on 14 January. After deliberations, twelve were sentenced to be hanged, the remaining two were to receive two hundred lashes each. Four men were duly hanged aboard Temeraire, the remainder were hanged aboard several of the ships anchored at Portsmouth, including , , and .
the day after and beginning preparations for her delayed voyage to the West Indies. She sailed for Barbados
, arriving there on 24 February, and remained in the West Indies until the summer. During her time there the Treaty of Amiens
was finally signed and ratified, and Temeraire was ordered back to Britain. She arrived into Plymouth
on 28 September and Eyles paid her off
on 5 October. With no immediate service available with the drawdown of the navy in the peace, Temeraire was laid up in the Hamoaze
for the next eighteen months.
, and he arrived to take up his commission on 1 January 1804. On putting to sea he sailed to join the Channel Fleet, still under the overall command of Admiral Cornwallis.
Temeraire now resumed her previous duties blockading the French at Brest. Heavy weather took its toll, forcing her to put into Torbay
for extensive repairs after her long patrols, repairs which eventually amounted to £9,143. During this time Harvey was often absent from his command, usually attending to his duties as member of parliament
for Essex
. He was temporarily replaced by Captain William Kelly on 27 August 1804, and he in turn was succeeded by Captain George Fawke on 6 April 1805. Harvey returned to his ship on 9 July 1805, and it was while he was in command that the reinforced Rochefort
squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder
had intercepted and attacked a Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape Finisterre
. The French commander, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
, was thwarted in his attempt to unite with the French forces at Brest, and instead sailed south to Ferrol
, and then to Cadiz
. When news of the Franco-Spanish fleet's location reached the Admiralty, they appointed Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson
to take command of the blockading force at Cadiz, which at the time was being commanded by Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood
. Nelson was told to pick whichever ships he liked to serve under him, and one of those he specifically chose was Temeraire.
design, to enable the British ships to tell friend from foe in the confusion of battle.
The combined fleet put to sea on 19 October 1805, and by 21 October both fleets were in sight of each other. Nelson formed up his lines and the British began to converge on the distant Franco-Spanish fleet. Contrary to his original instructions, Nelson took the lead of the weather column in Victory. Concerned for the commander-in-chief's safety in such an exposed position, Henry Blackwood
, a long-standing friend of Nelson and commander of the frigate that day, suggested that Nelson come aboard his ship to better observe and direct the battle. Nelson refused, so Blackwood instead tried to convince him to let Harvey come past him in the Temeraire, and so lead the column into battle. Nelson agreed to this, and signalled for Harvey to come past him. As Temeraire drew up towards Victory, Nelson decided that if he was standing aside to let another ship lead his line, so too should Collingwood, commanding the lee column of ships. He signalled Collingwood, aboard his flagship , to let another ship come ahead of him, but Collingwood continued to surge ahead. Reconsidering his plan, Nelson is reported to have hailed the Temeraire, as she came up alongside Victory, with the words 'I'll thank you, Captain Harvey, to keep in your proper station, which is astern of the Victory'. Nelson's instruction was followed up by a formal signal and Harvey dropped back reluctantly, but otherwise kept within one ship's length of Victory as she sailed up to the Franco-Spanish line.
as she did so. Redoutables broadside carried away Temeraires mizzen topmast, and while avoiding a broadside from Neptune, Temeraire narrowly avoided a collision with Redoutable. Another broadside from Neptune brought down Temeraires fore-yard and main topmast, and damaged her fore mast and bowsprit. Harvey now became aware that the Redoutable had come up alongside the Victory and swept her decks with musket fire and grenades. A large party of Frenchmen now gathered on her decks ready to board the Victory. Harvey brought Temeraire around, appearing suddenly out of the smoke of the battle and slipping across Redoutables stern, discharged a double-shotted broadside into her. Jean Jacques Étienne Lucas
, captain of the Redoutable, recorded that '... the three-decker [Temeraire] - who had doubtless perceived that the Victory had ceased fire and would inevitably be taken - ran foul of the Redoutable to starboard and overwhelmed us with the point-blank fire of all her guns. It would be impossible to describe the horrible carnage produced by the murderous broadside of this ship. More than two hundred of our brave lads were killed or wounded by it.'
Temeraire then rammed into the Redoutable, dismounting many of the French ship's guns, and worked her way alongside, after which her crew lashed the two ships together. Temeraire now poured continuous broadsides into the French ship, taking fire as she did so from the 112-gun Spanish ship Santa Ana
lying off her stern, and from the 74-gun French ship Fougueux, which came up on Temeraires un-engaged starboard side. Harvey ordered his gun crews to hold fire until Fougueux came within point blank range. Temeraires first broadside against Fougeuex at a range of 100 yards caused considerable damage to the Frenchman's rigging, and she drifted into Temeraire, whose crew promptly lashed her to the side. Temeraire was now lying between two French 74-gun ships. As Harvey later recalled in a letter to his wife 'Perhaps never was a ship so circumstanced as mine, to have for more than three hours two of the enemy's line of battle ships lashed to her.' Redoutable, sandwiched between Victory and Temeraire suffered heavy casualties, reported by Captain Lucas as amounting to 300 dead and 222 wounded. During the fight grenades thrown from the decks and topmasts of Redoubtable killed and wounded a number of Temeraires crew and set her starboard rigging on fire, with the flames spreading to the foresail. There was a brief pause in the fighting while both sides worked to douse the flames. Temeraire narrowly escaped destruction when a grenade thrown from Redoutable exploded on her maindeck, nearly igniting the after-magazine. Master-At-Arms John Toohig prevented the fire from spreading and saved not only Temeraire, but the surrounding ships, which would have been caught in the explosion.
After twenty minutes fighting both Victory and Temeraire, the Redoutable had been reduced to a floating wreck. Temeraire had also suffered heavily, damaged when Redoutables main mast fell onto her poop deck, and having had her own topmasts shot away. Informed that his ship was in danger of sinking, Lucas finally called for quarter to the Temeraire. Harvey sent a party across under the second lieutenant, John Wallace, to take charge of the ship.
, which entered Fougueux via her main deck ports and chains. The French tried to defend the decks port by port, but were steadily overwhelmed. Fougueuxs captain, Louis Alexis Baudoin, had suffered a fatal wound earlier in the fighting, leaving Commander Francois Bazin in charge. On learning that nearly all of the officers were dead or wounded and that most of the guns were out of action, Bazin surrendered the ship to the boarders.
Temeraire had by now fought both French ships to a standstill, at considerable cost to herself. She had sustained casualties of 47 killed and 76 wounded. All her sails and yards had been destroyed, only her lower masts remained, and the rudder head and starboard cat-head had been shot away. Eight feet of her starboard hull had been stove in and both quarter galleries had been destroyed. Harvey signalled for a frigate to tow his damaged ship out of the line, and came up to assist. Before Sirius could make contact, Temeraire came under fire from a counter-attack by the as-yet unengaged van of the combined fleet, led by Rear-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley
. Harvey ordered that the few guns that could be brought to bear be fired in response, and the attack was eventually beaten off by fresh British ships arriving on the scene.
A number of artists visited the newly-returned Trafalgar ships, including John Livesay, drawing master at the Royal Naval Academy
. Livesay produced several sketches of battle-damaged ships, sending them to Nicholas Pocock
to be used for Pocock's large paintings of the battle. Temeraire was one of the ships he sketched. Another visitor to Portsmouth was J. M. W. Turner
. It is not known whether he visited Temeraire, though he did go aboard Victory, making preparatory notes and sketches and interviewing sailors who had been in the battle. The story of the Temeraire had become firmly ingrained in the public mind, so much so that when the House of Commons passed a vote of thanks to the men who had fought at Trafalgar, only three were specifically named. Nelson, Collingwood, and Harvey of the Temeraire.
.
This service continued until early 1809, when she returned to Britain. By now Britain was heavily involved in the Baltic
, protecting mercantile interests. An expedition under Sir James Gambier
in July 1807 had captured most of the Danish Navy at the Battle of Copenhagen
, in response to fears that it might fall into Napoleon's hands, but precipitating war with the Danes
. Captain Hamilton left the ship, and was superseded by Captain Edward Sneyd Clay
. Temeraire now became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Manley Dixon
, with orders to go to the Baltic to reinforce the fleet stationed there under Sir James Saumarez
. Temeraire arrived in May 1809 and was sent to blockade Karlskrona
on the Swedish coast.
While on patrol with the 64-gun and the frigate , Temeraire became involved in one of the heaviest Danish gunboat attacks of the war. A party of men from Ardent had been landed on the island of Romsø
, but were taken by surprise in a Danish night attack, which saw most of the Ardent men captured. The Melpomene was sent under a flag of truce to negotiate for their release, but on returning from this mission, was becalmed. A flotilla of thirty Danish gunboats then launched an attack, taking advantage of the stranded Melpomenes inability to bring her broadside to bear on them. Melpomene signalled for help to the Temeraire, which immediately dispatched boats to her assistance. They engaged and then drove off the Danish ships, and then helped the Melpomene to safety. She had been heavily damaged and suffered casualties of five killed and twenty-nine wounded. Temeraires later Baltic service involved being dispatched to observe the Russian fleet
at Reval
, during which time she made a survey of the island of Nargen
. After important blockading and convoy escort work, Temeraire was ordered back to Britain as winter arrived, and she arrived in Plymouth in November 1809.
by the French. Temeraire, now the flagship of Rear-Admiral Francis Pickmore
, was ordered to reinforce the city's water defences, and provided men from her sailor and marine complement to man batteries and gunboats. Men from Temeraire were heavily involved in the fighting until July 1810, when Pickmore was ordered to sail to the Mediterranean and take up a new position as Port Admiral at Mahón
. Temeraire was thereafter based either at Mahón or off Toulon with the blockading British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Pellew
. Chamberlayne was replaced by Captain Joseph Spear in March 1811, and for the most part the blockade was uneventful. Though possessing a powerful fleet, the French commander avoided any contact with the blockading force and stayed in port, or else made very short voyages, returning to the harbour when the British appeared.
Temeraires one brush with the French during this period came in 13 August 1811. Having received orders to sail to Minorca
, Spear attempted to tack out of Hyères Bay. As he tried to do so, the wind fell away, leaving Temeraire becalmed and caught in a current which caused her to drift towards land. She came under fire from a shore battery on Pointe des Medes, which wounded several of her crew. Her boats were quickly manned, and together with boats sent from the squadron, Temeraire was towed out of range of the French guns. She then sailed to Minorca and underwent repairs. During this period an epidemic of yellow fever
broke out, infecting nearly the entire crew and killing around a hundred crewmen. Pellew ordered her back to Britain, and health gradually improved as she sailed through the Atlantic.
, but Linzee's command was short-lived. Temeraire left the dock on 13 March and was paid off one week later. Advances in naval technology had developed more powerful and strongly built warships, and though still comparatively new, Temeraire was no longer considered desirable for front-line service. While laid up the decision was taken to convert her into a prison ship
to alleviate overcrowding caused by large influxes of French prisoners from the Peninsular War campaigns. Conversion work was carried out at Plymouth between November and December 1813, after which she was laid up in the River Tamar
as a prison hulk. From 1814 she was under the nominal command of Lieutenant John Wharton. Despite being laid up and disarmed Temeraire and the rest of her class were nominally re-rated as 104-gun first rates in February 1817.
Temeraires service as a prison ship lasted until 1819, at which point she was selected for conversion to a receiving ship. She was extensively refitted at Plymouth between September 1819 and June 1820 at a cost of £27,733, and then sailed to Sheerness Dockyard. As a receiving ship she served as a temporary berth for new naval recruits until they received a posting to a ship. She fulfilled this role for eight years, until becoming a victualling depot in 1829. Her final role was as a guardship at Sheerness, under the title 'Guardship of the Ordinary and Captain-Superintendent's ship of the Fleet Reserve in the Medway'. This final post as flagship of the Medway Reserve involved her being repainted and rearmed, and she was used to train boys belonging to the Marine Society. For the last two years of her service, from 1836 to 1838 she was under the nominal command of Captain Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, in his post as Captain-Superintendent of Sheerness. Kennedy had been Temeraires first-lieutenant at Trafalgar.
on 16 August 1838 to John Beatson, a shipbreaker based at Rotherhithe
for £5,530. Beatson was then faced with the task of transporting the ship 55 miles from Sheerness to Rotherhithe, the largest ship to have attempted this voyage. To accomplish this he hired two tug
s from the Thames Steam Towing Company and employed a Rotherhithe pilot
named William Scott and twenty five men to sail her up the Thames, at a cost of £58.
. They had reached Greenhithe
by 1.30 pm at the ebb of the tide, where they anchored overnight. They resumed the journey at 8.30 am the following day, passing Woolwich
and then Greenwich
at noon. They reached Limehouse
Reach shortly afterwards and brought her safely to Beatson's Wharf at 2 pm. The Temeraire was hauled up onto the mud, where she lay as she was slowly broken up. The final voyage was announced in a number of papers, and thousands of spectators came to see her towed up the Thames or laid up at Beatson's yard. The shipbreakers undertook a thorough dismantling, removing all the copper sheathing, rudder pintle
s and gudgeon
s, copper bolts, nails and other fastenings to be sold back to the Admiralty. The timber was mostly sold to house builders and shipyard owners, though some was retained for working into specialist commemorative furniture.
on the occasion of his marriage to Mary of Teck
, and is held at Balmoral Castle
. A barometer
, gavel
, and some miscellaneous timber are in the collections of the National Maritime Museum
, and chairs made from Temeraire oak are in the possession of the Royal Naval Museum
, Portsmouth, Lloyd's Register
, London and the Whanganui Regional Museum, Whanganui
. An altar
, communion rail
and two bishop's chairs
survive in St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe
. A ship model
of the Temeraire made by prisoners of war uses a stand made from wood taken from her, and is currently in the Watermen's Hall in London. Other relics of the Temeraire known to exist or have existed are a tea caddy
made for her signal midshipman at Trafalgar, James Eaton
, and sold at auction in 2000, the frame for an oil painting by Sir Edwin Landseer
titled Neptune, and a mantelpiece made for Beatson's office, supported by figures of Atlas
supposedly taken from Temeraires stern gallery. The mantelpiece can no longer be traced, nor can a plaque once fixed to Temeraires deck commemorating Nelson's signal at Trafalgar
, nor a wooden leg made for a Trafalgar veteran from Temeraires wood. John Ruskin
foreshadowed the fate of the Temeraires wood in an essay which claimed that 'Perhaps, where the low gate opens to some cottage garden, the tired traveller may ask, idly, why the moss grows so green on its rugged wood, and even the sailor's child may not answer nor know that the night dew lies deep in the war rents of the wood of the old Temeraire.'
Temeraire features in a number of paintings and prints, the earliest commemorating her role in the battle of Trafalgar. She can be seen at least partially in paintings of the battle by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield, John Christian Schetky
, Nicholas Pocock
, Thomas Buttersworth
and Thomas Whitcombe
. A fictionalised depiction of her launch was produced by Philip Burgoyne. Later representations of the retired Temeraire were also popular. Though no known contemporary image of her in the prison ship role exists, she was painted in 1833 by Edward William Cooke
while a guardship on the Medway, and by William Beatson and J. J. Williams while laid up at Rotherhithe in 1838. More recently she has been the subject of paintings by Geoff Hunt
. The most famous painting of Temeraire was made by J. M. W. Turner and titled The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838
. Turner depicts the Temeraire on her last voyage, towed up the Thames by a small black steam tug as the sun sets. In choosing his title Turner created a enduring appellation, as previously she had been known to her crew as the 'saucy' Temeraire. Turner presented it for exhibition at the Royal Academy
in 1839 with an accompanying excerpt, slightly altered, of Thomas Campbell's poem Ye Mariners of England.
Turner's painting achieved widespread critical acclaim, and accolades from the likes of John Ruskin and William Makepeace Thackeray
. It was Turner's particular favourite, he only lent it once and refused to ever do so again. He also refused to sell it at any price, and on his death bequeathed it to the nation. It hangs today in the National Gallery
, and in 2005 it was voted the nation's favourite painting in a poll organized by BBC Radio 4
's Today programme.
shortly after Temeraires arrival at Rotherhithe, and lamented the fate of the great sailing warships. Turner's painting created an enduring interest in the story of the Temeraire and several poems appeared in the decades following her breaking up. Gerald Massey
wrote The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth, Herman Melville
produced The Temeraire, and Henry Newbolt
wrote The Fighting Temeraire, with its closing lines
Second-rate
In the British Royal Navy, a second rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th century second rates had fewer guns and were originally two-deckers or had only partially armed third gun decks. The term in no way implied...
ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. Launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought only one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
, but became so well known for her actions and her subsequent depictions in art and literature that she has been remembered as 'The Fighting Temeraire'.
Built at Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
, Temeraire entered service on the Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
blockade with the Channel Fleet
Channel Fleet
The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...
. Her duties were tedious and seldom relieved by any action with the French fleet. The first incident of note came when a group of sailors, hearing rumours they were to be sent to the West Indies at a time when peace with France seemed imminent, refused to obey orders, so committing an act of mutiny. The mutiny eventually failed and a number of the mutineers were tried and executed. Laid up during the Peace of Amiens, Temeraire returned to active service with the resumption of the wars with France, again serving with the Channel Fleet. She was asked specifically to join Horatio Nelson's
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
blockade of the Franco-Spanish fleet in Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
in 1805, and at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October, Temeraire went into action immediately astern of Nelson's flagship, . During the battle Temeraire came to the rescue of the beleaguered Victory, and fought and captured two French ships.
Temeraire returned to public renown in Britain, and after undergoing substantial repairs was employed blockading the French fleets and supporting British operations off the Spanish coasts. She went out to the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
in 1809, defending convoys against Danish gunboat attacks, and by 1810 was off the Spanish coast again, helping to defend Cadiz against a French army. Her last action was against the French off Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
, when she came under fire from shore batteries. Temeraire returned to Britain in 1813 for repairs, but was laid up. She was converted to a prison ship, spending until 1819 moored in the River Tamar
River Tamar
The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...
in this role. Further service saw her move to Sheerness
Sheerness
Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....
as a receiving ship, then a victualling depot, and finally a guardship. The Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
ordered her to be sold in 1838, and she was towed up the Thames to be broken up.
This final voyage was depicted in an oil painting by J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
, entitled The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838
The Fighting Temeraire
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838 is an oil painting executed in 1839 by the English artist J. M. W. Turner...
. The painting was greeted with critical acclaim, which has endured. In 2005 it was voted Britain's favourite painting.
Construction and commissioning
Temeraire was ordered from Chatham DockyardChatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
on 9 December 1790, to a design developed by Surveyor of the Navy
Surveyor of the Navy
The Surveyor to the Navy was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy. He was a member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1546, and held overall responsibility for the design of British warships, although until 1745 the actual design work for warships built at each Royal Dockyard...
Sir John Henslow. She was one of three ships of the Neptune class
Neptune class ship of the line
The Neptune-class ships of the line were a class of three 98-gun second rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir John Henslow. All three of the ships in the class took part in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.-Ships:...
, alongside her sisters and . Temeraire was laid down at Chatham in July 1791. The initial stages of her construction were overseen by Master Shipwright Thomas Pollard, though he was succeeded by Edward Sison on 25 June 1795, and Sison oversaw her completion. Temeraire was launched on 11 September 1798 and the following day was taken into the graving dock to be fitted for sea. Her hull was fitted with copper sheathing
Copper sheathing
Copper sheathing was the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by the Royal Navy during the 18th century.-Development:...
, a process that took two weeks to complete. Refloated, she finished fitting out, and received her masts and yards. Her final costs came to £73,241, and included £59,428 spent on the hull, masts and yards, and a further £13,813 on rigging and stores.
She was commissioned on 21 March 1799 under Captain Peter Puget
Peter Puget
Peter Puget was an officer in the Royal Navy, best known for his exploration of Puget Sound.-Mr. Midshipman Puget:Puget's ancestors had fled France for Britain during Louis XIV's persecution of the Huguenots. His father, John, was a successful merchant and banker, but died in 1767, leaving Puget's...
, becoming the second ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Temeraire. Her predecessor had been the 74-gun third rate , a former French ship taken as a prize
Prize (law)
Prize is a term used in admiralty law to refer to equipment, vehicles, vessels, and cargo captured during armed conflict. The most common use of prize in this sense is the capture of an enemy ship and its cargo as a prize of war. In the past, it was common that the capturing force would be allotted...
at the Battle of Lagos
Battle of Lagos
The naval Battle of Lagos between Britain and France took place on August 19, 1759 during the Seven Years' War off the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and is named after Lagos, Portugal. For the British, it was part of the Annus Mirabilis of 1759.-Origins:...
on 19 August 1759 by a fleet under Admiral Edward Boscawen
Edward Boscawen
Admiral Edward Boscawen, PC was an Admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall. He is known principally for his various naval commands throughout the 18th Century and the engagements that he won, including the Siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos...
. This Temeraire retained her French name after her capture, and served during the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
, before being sold out of the service in 1784. Puget was only in command until 26 July 1799, during which time he oversaw the process of fitting the new Temeraire for sea. He was superseded by Captain Thomas Eyles
Thomas Eyles
Thomas Eyles was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.Little has been recorded about Eyles' early life, but he served for much of his time in the navy under the patronage of Sir John Borlase Warren, a prominent naval commander, who arranged...
on 27 July 1799, while the vessel was anchored off St Helens, Isle of Wight
St Helens, Isle of Wight
St. Helens is a village and civil parish located on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight. The village is based around village greens. This is claimed to be the largest in England but some say the Village Green is the second largest. The greens are often used for cricket matches during the summer...
.
With the Channel Fleet
Under Eyles's command Temeraire finally put to sea that July, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, and joined the Channel FleetChannel Fleet
The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...
under the overall command of Admiral Lord Bridport. The Channel Fleet was at that time principally engaged in the blockade of the French port of Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
, and Temeraire spent several long cruises of two or three months at a time patrolling the area. Eyles was superseded during this period by Temeraires former commander, Captain Puget, who resumed command on 14 October 1799, and the following month Temeraire became the flagship of Rear-Admiral James Whitshed.
Lord Bridport had been replaced as commander of the Channel Fleet by Admiral Lord St Vincent in mid-1799, and the long blockade cruises were sustained throughout the winter and into the following year. On 20 April 1800 Puget was superseded as commander by Captain Edward Marsh. Marsh commanded Temeraire throughout the remainder of that year and for the first half of 1801, until his replacement, Captain Thomas Eyles arrived to assume command on 31 August. Rear-Admiral Whitshed had also struck his flag by now, and in his place Temeraire became the flagship of Rear-Admiral George Campbell
George Campbell (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir George Campbell GCB was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.-Naval career:...
. By this time the Second Coalition against France had collapsed, and negotiations for peace were underway at Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...
. Lord St Vincent had been promoted to First Lord of the Admiralty, and command of the Channel Fleet passed to Admiral Sir William Cornwallis
William Cornwallis
Admiral the Honourable Sir William Cornwallis GCB was a Royal Navy officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis, governor-general of India...
. Anticipating the imminent end of the war, Temeraire was taken off blockade duty and sent to Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay is a bay located in County Cork, southwest Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km wide at the head and wide at the entrance....
to await the arrival of a convoy, which she would then escort to the West Indies. Many of the crew had been serving continuously in the navy since the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, and had looked forward to returning to England now that peace seemed imminent. On hearing rumours that instead they were to be sent to the West Indies, a group of around a dozen men began to agitate for the rest of the crew to refuse orders to sail for anywhere but England.
Mutiny
The first open clash between the mutineers and officers came on the morning of 3 December, when a small group of sailors gathered on the forecastleForecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...
and refusing orders to leave, began to argue with the officers. Captain Eyles asked to know their demands, which were an assurance that Temeraire would not go to the West Indies, but instead would return to England. Eventually Rear-Admiral Campbell came down to speak to the men, and having informed them that the officers did not know the destination of the ship, he ordered them to disperse. The men went below decks and the incipient mutiny appeared to have been quashed. The ringleaders, numbering around a dozen, remained determined however, and made discreet inquiries among the rest of the crew. Having eventually determined that the majority of the crew would, if not actually support a mutiny, at least not oppose it, and that the Temeraires crew would be supported by the ship's marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
as well as the crews of some of the other warships in Bantry Bay, they decided to press ahead with their plans. The mutiny began with the crew closing the ship's gunports, effectively barricading themselves below deck. Having done so they refused orders to open them again, jeered the officers and threatened violence. The crew then came up on deck and once again demanded to know their destination and refused to obey orders to sail for anywhere but England. Having presented their demands they returned below decks and resumed the usual shipboard routine as much as they could.
Alarmed by the actions of the Temeraires crew, Campbell met with Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell
Andrew Mitchell (Royal Navy officer)
Sir Andrew Mitchell KB was an Admiral of the Blue in the Royal Navy. Married to Mary Uniacke in Halifax, Nova Scotia on 3 May 1805.-Career:...
the following day and informed him of the mutineers' demands. Mitchell reported the news to the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
while Campbell returned to Temeraire and summoned the crew on deck once more. He urged them to return to duty, and then dismissed them. Meanwhile discipline had begun to break down among the mutineers. Several of the crew became drunk, and some of the officers were struck by rowdy seamen. When one of the marines who supported the mutiny was placed in irons for drunken behaviour and insolence, a crowd formed on deck and tried to free him. The officers resisted these attempts and as sailors began to push and threaten them, Campbell gave the order for the marines to arrest those he identified as the ringleaders. The marines hesitated, but then obeyed the order, driving the unruly seamen back and arresting a number of them, who were immediately placed in irons. Campbell ordered the remaining crew to abandon any mutinous actions, and deprived of its leaders, the mutiny collapsed, though the officers were on their guard for several days afterwards and the marines were ordered to carry out continuous patrols.
News of the mutiny created a sensation in England, and the Admiralty ordered Temeraire to sail immediately for Spithead
Spithead
Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds, except those from the southeast...
while an investigation was carried out. Vice-Admiral Mitchell was granted extraordinary powers regarding the death sentence
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
and Temeraires marine complement was hastily augmented for the voyage to England. On the ship's arrival, the 14 imprisoned ringleaders were swiftly court-martialled in two batches aboard , anchored in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, the first held on 6 January 1802, the second on 14 January. After deliberations, twelve were sentenced to be hanged, the remaining two were to receive two hundred lashes each. Four men were duly hanged aboard Temeraire, the remainder were hanged aboard several of the ships anchored at Portsmouth, including , , and .
West Indies and the peace
Having carried out the executions, Temeraire was immediately sent to sea, sailing from Portsmouth for the Isle of WightIsle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
the day after and beginning preparations for her delayed voyage to the West Indies. She sailed for Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, arriving there on 24 February, and remained in the West Indies until the summer. During her time there the Treaty of Amiens
Treaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...
was finally signed and ratified, and Temeraire was ordered back to Britain. She arrived into Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
on 28 September and Eyles paid her off
Ship decommissioning
To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....
on 5 October. With no immediate service available with the drawdown of the navy in the peace, Temeraire was laid up in the Hamoaze
Hamoaze
The Hamoaze is an estuarine stretch of the tidal River Tamar, between the River Lynher and Plymouth Sound, England.The Hamoaze flows past Devonport Dockyard, which belongs to the Royal Navy...
for the next eighteen months.
Return to service
The peace of Amiens was a brief interlude in the wars with Revolutionary France, and in 1803 the War of the Third Coalition began. Temeraire had deteriorated substantially during her long period spent laid up, and she was taken into dry dock on 22 May to repair and refit, starting with the replacement of her copper sheathing. Work was delayed when a heavy storm hit Plymouth in January 1804, causing appreciable damage to Temeraire, but had finally been completed by February 1804, at a cost of £16,898. Command of her had been assigned to Captain Eliab HarveyEliab Harvey
Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, GCB was an eccentric and hot-tempered officer of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars who was as distinguished for his gambling and dueling as for his military record...
, and he arrived to take up his commission on 1 January 1804. On putting to sea he sailed to join the Channel Fleet, still under the overall command of Admiral Cornwallis.
Temeraire now resumed her previous duties blockading the French at Brest. Heavy weather took its toll, forcing her to put into Torbay
Torbay
Torbay is an east-facing bay and natural harbour, at the western most end of Lyme Bay in the south-west of England, situated roughly midway between the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. Part of the ceremonial county of Devon, Torbay was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998...
for extensive repairs after her long patrols, repairs which eventually amounted to £9,143. During this time Harvey was often absent from his command, usually attending to his duties as member of parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Essex
Essex (UK Parliament constituency)
Essex was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1290 until 1832. It elected two MPs, traditionally referred to as Knights of the Shire, to the House of Commons...
. He was temporarily replaced by Captain William Kelly on 27 August 1804, and he in turn was succeeded by Captain George Fawke on 6 April 1805. Harvey returned to his ship on 9 July 1805, and it was while he was in command that the reinforced Rochefort
Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...
squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder
Robert Calder
Admiral Sir Robert Calder, 1st Baronet, KCB was a British naval officer who served in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.-Early life:...
had intercepted and attacked a Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape Finisterre
Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805)
In the Battle of Cape Finisterre off Galicia, Spain, the British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder fought an indecisive naval battle against the Combined Franco-Spanish fleet which was returning from the West Indies...
. The French commander, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and Spanish fleets defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar....
, was thwarted in his attempt to unite with the French forces at Brest, and instead sailed south to Ferrol
Ferrol
Ferrol can refer to:* Ferrol, Spain, industrial city and naval station in Galicia * Ferrol, Virginia, town in the United States of America* Ferrol, Romblon, municipality in the Philippines* Ferrol, Peninsula, Peru, South America...
, and then to Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
. When news of the Franco-Spanish fleet's location reached the Admiralty, they appointed Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
to take command of the blockading force at Cadiz, which at the time was being commanded by Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood
Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood
Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as Nelson's successor in commands.-Early years:Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne...
. Nelson was told to pick whichever ships he liked to serve under him, and one of those he specifically chose was Temeraire.
Temeraire at Trafalgar
Temeraire duly received orders to join the Cadiz blockade, and having sailed to rendezvous with Collingwood, Harvey awaited Nelson's arrival. Nelson's flagship, the 100-gun arrived off Cadiz on 28 September, and he took over command of the fleet from Collingwood. He spent the next few weeks forming his plan of attack in preparation for the expected sortie of the Franco-Spanish fleet, issuing it to his captains on 9 October in the form of a memorandum. The memorandum called for two divisions of ships to attack at right angles to the enemy line, severing its van from the centre and rear. A third advance squadron would be deployed as a reserve, with the ability to join one of the lines as the course of the battle dictated. Nelson placed the largest and most powerful ships at the heads of the lines, with Temeraire assigned to lead Nelson's own column into battle. The fleet patrolled a considerable distance from the Spanish coast to lure the combined fleet out, and the ships took the opportunity to exercise and prepare for the coming battle. For Temeraire this probably involved painting her sides in the Nelson ChequerNelson Chequer
The Nelson Chequer was a specific colour-scheme adopted by vessels of the Royal Navy, modelled on that used by Admiral Horatio Nelson. It consisted of bands of black and yellow paint along the sides broken up by black gunports. Nelson, apparently, used the same style for all vessels under his...
design, to enable the British ships to tell friend from foe in the confusion of battle.
The combined fleet put to sea on 19 October 1805, and by 21 October both fleets were in sight of each other. Nelson formed up his lines and the British began to converge on the distant Franco-Spanish fleet. Contrary to his original instructions, Nelson took the lead of the weather column in Victory. Concerned for the commander-in-chief's safety in such an exposed position, Henry Blackwood
Henry Blackwood
Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, 1st Baronet, GCH, KCB , whose memorial is in the St. John's Church, Killyleagh, was a British sailor....
, a long-standing friend of Nelson and commander of the frigate that day, suggested that Nelson come aboard his ship to better observe and direct the battle. Nelson refused, so Blackwood instead tried to convince him to let Harvey come past him in the Temeraire, and so lead the column into battle. Nelson agreed to this, and signalled for Harvey to come past him. As Temeraire drew up towards Victory, Nelson decided that if he was standing aside to let another ship lead his line, so too should Collingwood, commanding the lee column of ships. He signalled Collingwood, aboard his flagship , to let another ship come ahead of him, but Collingwood continued to surge ahead. Reconsidering his plan, Nelson is reported to have hailed the Temeraire, as she came up alongside Victory, with the words 'I'll thank you, Captain Harvey, to keep in your proper station, which is astern of the Victory'. Nelson's instruction was followed up by a formal signal and Harvey dropped back reluctantly, but otherwise kept within one ship's length of Victory as she sailed up to the Franco-Spanish line.
The Fighting Temeraire
Closely following Victory as she passed through the Franco-Spanish line across the bows of the French flagship Bucentaure, Harvey was forced to sheer away quickly to prevent colliding with Victorys stern. Turning to starboard, Harvey made for the 140-gun Spanish ship Santísima Trinidad and engaged her for twenty minutes, taking raking fire from two French ships, the 80-gun Neptune and the 74-gun RedoutableFrench ship Redoutable (1791)
The Redoutable was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She is known for her duel with HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar and for killing Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson during the action.- Early career :...
as she did so. Redoutables broadside carried away Temeraires mizzen topmast, and while avoiding a broadside from Neptune, Temeraire narrowly avoided a collision with Redoutable. Another broadside from Neptune brought down Temeraires fore-yard and main topmast, and damaged her fore mast and bowsprit. Harvey now became aware that the Redoutable had come up alongside the Victory and swept her decks with musket fire and grenades. A large party of Frenchmen now gathered on her decks ready to board the Victory. Harvey brought Temeraire around, appearing suddenly out of the smoke of the battle and slipping across Redoutables stern, discharged a double-shotted broadside into her. Jean Jacques Étienne Lucas
Jean Jacques Etienne Lucas
Jean Jacques Étienne Lucas was a French Navy officer, famous for his role in the Battle of Trafalgar.-Career:Born in Marennes, he joined the French Navy at the age of 15. From 1779 to 1782 he sailed on the Hermione...
, captain of the Redoutable, recorded that '... the three-decker [Temeraire] - who had doubtless perceived that the Victory had ceased fire and would inevitably be taken - ran foul of the Redoutable to starboard and overwhelmed us with the point-blank fire of all her guns. It would be impossible to describe the horrible carnage produced by the murderous broadside of this ship. More than two hundred of our brave lads were killed or wounded by it.'
Temeraire and Redoutable
Spanish ship Santa Ana (1784)
The Santa Ana was a 112-gun three-decker ship of the line of the Spanish Navy, built to plans by Romero Landa. She was the prototype and lead ship of the Santa Ana class, also known as los Meregildos, which were built during the following years at Ferrol and Havana and which formed the backbone of...
lying off her stern, and from the 74-gun French ship Fougueux, which came up on Temeraires un-engaged starboard side. Harvey ordered his gun crews to hold fire until Fougueux came within point blank range. Temeraires first broadside against Fougeuex at a range of 100 yards caused considerable damage to the Frenchman's rigging, and she drifted into Temeraire, whose crew promptly lashed her to the side. Temeraire was now lying between two French 74-gun ships. As Harvey later recalled in a letter to his wife 'Perhaps never was a ship so circumstanced as mine, to have for more than three hours two of the enemy's line of battle ships lashed to her.' Redoutable, sandwiched between Victory and Temeraire suffered heavy casualties, reported by Captain Lucas as amounting to 300 dead and 222 wounded. During the fight grenades thrown from the decks and topmasts of Redoubtable killed and wounded a number of Temeraires crew and set her starboard rigging on fire, with the flames spreading to the foresail. There was a brief pause in the fighting while both sides worked to douse the flames. Temeraire narrowly escaped destruction when a grenade thrown from Redoutable exploded on her maindeck, nearly igniting the after-magazine. Master-At-Arms John Toohig prevented the fire from spreading and saved not only Temeraire, but the surrounding ships, which would have been caught in the explosion.
After twenty minutes fighting both Victory and Temeraire, the Redoutable had been reduced to a floating wreck. Temeraire had also suffered heavily, damaged when Redoutables main mast fell onto her poop deck, and having had her own topmasts shot away. Informed that his ship was in danger of sinking, Lucas finally called for quarter to the Temeraire. Harvey sent a party across under the second lieutenant, John Wallace, to take charge of the ship.
Temeraire and Fougueux
Lashed together, Temeraire and Fougueux exchanged fire, Temeraire initially clearing the French ship's upper deck with small arms fire. The French rallied, but the greater height of the three-decked Temeraire compared to the two-decked Fougueux thwarted their attempts to board. Instead Harvey dispatched his own boarding party, led by First-Lieutenant Thomas Fortescue KennedyThomas Fortescue Kennedy
Thomas Fortescue Kennedy was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
, which entered Fougueux via her main deck ports and chains. The French tried to defend the decks port by port, but were steadily overwhelmed. Fougueuxs captain, Louis Alexis Baudoin, had suffered a fatal wound earlier in the fighting, leaving Commander Francois Bazin in charge. On learning that nearly all of the officers were dead or wounded and that most of the guns were out of action, Bazin surrendered the ship to the boarders.
Temeraire had by now fought both French ships to a standstill, at considerable cost to herself. She had sustained casualties of 47 killed and 76 wounded. All her sails and yards had been destroyed, only her lower masts remained, and the rudder head and starboard cat-head had been shot away. Eight feet of her starboard hull had been stove in and both quarter galleries had been destroyed. Harvey signalled for a frigate to tow his damaged ship out of the line, and came up to assist. Before Sirius could make contact, Temeraire came under fire from a counter-attack by the as-yet unengaged van of the combined fleet, led by Rear-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley
Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley
Vice-Admiral Count Pierre-Etienne-René-Marie Dumanoir Le Pelley was a French Navy officer, best known for commanding the vanguard of the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar.- Early career :...
. Harvey ordered that the few guns that could be brought to bear be fired in response, and the attack was eventually beaten off by fresh British ships arriving on the scene.
The storm
Shortly after the battle had ended, a severe gale struck the area. Several of the captured French and Spanish ships foundered in the rising seas, including both of Temeraires prizes, the Fougueux and the Redoutable. Lost in the wrecks were a considerable number of their crews, as well as 47 Temeraire crewmen, serving as prize crews. Temeraire rode out the storm following the battle, sometimes being taken in tow by less damaged ships, sometimes riding at anchor. She took aboard a number of Spanish and French prisoners transferred from other prizes, including some transferred from the Euryalus, which was serving as the temporary flagship of Cuthbert Collingwood. Harvey took the opportunity to go aboard the Euryalus and present his account of the battle to Collingwood, and so became the only captain to do so before Collingwood wrote his dispatch about the victory.Temeraire returns
Temeraire finally put into Gibraltar on 2 November, eleven days after the battle had been fought. After undergoing minor repairs she sailed for England, arriving at Portsmouth on 1 December, three days before Victory passed by carrying Nelson's body. The battle-damaged ships quickly became tourist attractions, with visitors flocking to tour them. Temeraire was particularly popular on her arrival, having been the only ship singled out by name in Collingwood's dispatch for her heroic conduct. Collingwood wroteA circumstance occurred during the action which so strongly marks the invincible spirit of British seamen, when engaging the enemies of their country, that I cannot resist the pleasure I have in making it known to their Lordships; the Temeraire was boarded by accident; or design, by a French ship on one side, and a Spaniard on the other; the contest was vigorous, but, in the end the combined ensigns were torn from the poop and the British hoisted in their places.Collingwood's account, probably based largely on Harvey's report in the immediate aftermath of the battle, contained several errors. Temeraire had closely engaged two French ships, rather than a French and a Spanish ship, and had not been boarded by either during the action. Nevertheless the account was popular and a print was rushed out purporting to show Harvey taking the lead in clearing Temeraires decks of enemy seamen.
A number of artists visited the newly-returned Trafalgar ships, including John Livesay, drawing master at the Royal Naval Academy
Royal Naval Academy
The Royal Naval Academy was established at Portsmouth Dockyard as a facility to train officers for the Royal Navy. The founders' intentions were to provide an alternative means to recruit officers and to provide standardised training, education and admission.-Training:In 1773, a shore side...
. Livesay produced several sketches of battle-damaged ships, sending them to Nicholas Pocock
Nicholas Pocock
thumb|Pocock's bird's-eye-view painting of the [[Battle of Copenhagen ]]Nicholas Pocock was a British artist best known for his many detailed paintings of naval battles during the age of sail....
to be used for Pocock's large paintings of the battle. Temeraire was one of the ships he sketched. Another visitor to Portsmouth was J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
. It is not known whether he visited Temeraire, though he did go aboard Victory, making preparatory notes and sketches and interviewing sailors who had been in the battle. The story of the Temeraire had become firmly ingrained in the public mind, so much so that when the House of Commons passed a vote of thanks to the men who had fought at Trafalgar, only three were specifically named. Nelson, Collingwood, and Harvey of the Temeraire.
Mediterranean and Baltic service
The battle-damaged Temeraire was almost immediately dry-docked in Portsmouth to undergo substantial repairs, which eventually lasted sixteen months and cost £25,352. She finally left the dockyard in mid-1807, now under the command of Sir Charles Hamilton. Having fitted her for sea, Hamilton sailed to the Mediterranean in September and joined the fleet blockading the French in Toulon. The service was largely uneventful, and Temeraire returned to Britain in April 1808 to undergo repairs at Plymouth. During her time in Britain the strategic situation in Europe changed, with Spain rebelling against French domination and entering the war against France. Temeraire sailed in June to join naval forces operating off the Spanish coast in support of anti-French forces in the Peninsular WarPeninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
.
This service continued until early 1809, when she returned to Britain. By now Britain was heavily involved in the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, protecting mercantile interests. An expedition under Sir James Gambier
James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier
Admiral of the Fleet James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier GCB was an admiral of the Royal Navy, who served as Governor of Newfoundland, and as a Lord of the Admiralty, but who gained notoriety for his actions at the Battle of the Basque Roads.-Early career:Gambier was born in New Providence, The...
in July 1807 had captured most of the Danish Navy at the Battle of Copenhagen
Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...
, in response to fears that it might fall into Napoleon's hands, but precipitating war with the Danes
Gunboat War
The Gunboat War was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy...
. Captain Hamilton left the ship, and was superseded by Captain Edward Sneyd Clay
Edward Sneyd Clay
Edward Sneyd Clay was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.Clay entered the navy just before the end of the American War of Independence...
. Temeraire now became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Manley Dixon
Manley Dixon
Admiral Sir Manley Dixon, KCB was a prominent Royal Navy officer during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Born into a military family in the late 1750s or early 1760s, Dixon joined the Navy and served as a junior officer in the American Revolutionary War, gaining an independent...
, with orders to go to the Baltic to reinforce the fleet stationed there under Sir James Saumarez
James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez
Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez , GCB was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, notable for his victory at the Battle of Algeciras.-Early life:...
. Temeraire arrived in May 1809 and was sent to blockade Karlskrona
Karlskrona
Karlskrona is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 35,212 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Sweden's only remaining naval base and the headquarters of the...
on the Swedish coast.
While on patrol with the 64-gun and the frigate , Temeraire became involved in one of the heaviest Danish gunboat attacks of the war. A party of men from Ardent had been landed on the island of Romsø
Romsø
Romsø is a Danish island in the Great Belt off the coast of Funen. It has an area of 1.09 km² and has, since 1996, no permanent residents. A defunct lighthouse and a few houses are located on the island; a substantial part of its area is covered by forest....
, but were taken by surprise in a Danish night attack, which saw most of the Ardent men captured. The Melpomene was sent under a flag of truce to negotiate for their release, but on returning from this mission, was becalmed. A flotilla of thirty Danish gunboats then launched an attack, taking advantage of the stranded Melpomenes inability to bring her broadside to bear on them. Melpomene signalled for help to the Temeraire, which immediately dispatched boats to her assistance. They engaged and then drove off the Danish ships, and then helped the Melpomene to safety. She had been heavily damaged and suffered casualties of five killed and twenty-nine wounded. Temeraires later Baltic service involved being dispatched to observe the Russian fleet
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
at Reval
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, during which time she made a survey of the island of Nargen
Naissaar
Naissaar is an island northwest of Tallinn in Estonia. The island covers an area of 18.6 km². It is 13-14 km long and 6 km wide, and lies about 8.5 km from the mainland. The highest point on the island is Kunilamägi, which is 27 meters above sea-level. The island consists predominantly of...
. After important blockading and convoy escort work, Temeraire was ordered back to Britain as winter arrived, and she arrived in Plymouth in November 1809.
Iberian service
After a period under repair in Plymouth, Temeraire was recommissioned under the command of Captain Edwin H Chamberlayne in late January 1810. The Peninsular War had reached a critical stage, with the Spanish government besieged in CadizSiege of Cádiz
The Siege of Cádiz was a siege of the large Spanish naval base of Cádiz by a French army from February 5, 1810 to August 24, 1812 during the Peninsular War. Following the occupation of Madrid on March 23, 1808, Cádiz became the Spanish seat of power, and was targeted by 60,000 French troops under...
by the French. Temeraire, now the flagship of Rear-Admiral Francis Pickmore
Francis Pickmore
Francis Pickmore naval officer and colonial governor born in Chester, Cheshire, England and died St. John's, Newfoundland....
, was ordered to reinforce the city's water defences, and provided men from her sailor and marine complement to man batteries and gunboats. Men from Temeraire were heavily involved in the fighting until July 1810, when Pickmore was ordered to sail to the Mediterranean and take up a new position as Port Admiral at Mahón
Mahon
Mahón is a municipality and the capital city of the Balearic Island of Minorca , located in the eastern part of the island. Mahon has the second deepest natural harbor in the world: 5 km long and up to 900m. wide...
. Temeraire was thereafter based either at Mahón or off Toulon with the blockading British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Pellew
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary, and the Napoleonic Wars...
. Chamberlayne was replaced by Captain Joseph Spear in March 1811, and for the most part the blockade was uneventful. Though possessing a powerful fleet, the French commander avoided any contact with the blockading force and stayed in port, or else made very short voyages, returning to the harbour when the British appeared.
Temeraires one brush with the French during this period came in 13 August 1811. Having received orders to sail to Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
, Spear attempted to tack out of Hyères Bay. As he tried to do so, the wind fell away, leaving Temeraire becalmed and caught in a current which caused her to drift towards land. She came under fire from a shore battery on Pointe des Medes, which wounded several of her crew. Her boats were quickly manned, and together with boats sent from the squadron, Temeraire was towed out of range of the French guns. She then sailed to Minorca and underwent repairs. During this period an epidemic of yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
broke out, infecting nearly the entire crew and killing around a hundred crewmen. Pellew ordered her back to Britain, and health gradually improved as she sailed through the Atlantic.
Retirement
Temeraire arrived in Plymouth on 9 February 1812 and was docked for a survey several weeks later. The survey reported that she was 'A well built and strong ship but apparently much decay'd'. Spear was superseded on 4 March by Captain Samuel Hood LinzeeSamuel Hood Linzee
Samuel Hood Linzee was an admiral of the British Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.-Biography:...
, but Linzee's command was short-lived. Temeraire left the dock on 13 March and was paid off one week later. Advances in naval technology had developed more powerful and strongly built warships, and though still comparatively new, Temeraire was no longer considered desirable for front-line service. While laid up the decision was taken to convert her into a prison ship
Prison ship
A prison ship, historically sometimes called a prison hulk, is a vessel used as a prison, often to hold convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies. This practice was popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries....
to alleviate overcrowding caused by large influxes of French prisoners from the Peninsular War campaigns. Conversion work was carried out at Plymouth between November and December 1813, after which she was laid up in the River Tamar
River Tamar
The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...
as a prison hulk. From 1814 she was under the nominal command of Lieutenant John Wharton. Despite being laid up and disarmed Temeraire and the rest of her class were nominally re-rated as 104-gun first rates in February 1817.
Temeraires service as a prison ship lasted until 1819, at which point she was selected for conversion to a receiving ship. She was extensively refitted at Plymouth between September 1819 and June 1820 at a cost of £27,733, and then sailed to Sheerness Dockyard. As a receiving ship she served as a temporary berth for new naval recruits until they received a posting to a ship. She fulfilled this role for eight years, until becoming a victualling depot in 1829. Her final role was as a guardship at Sheerness, under the title 'Guardship of the Ordinary and Captain-Superintendent's ship of the Fleet Reserve in the Medway'. This final post as flagship of the Medway Reserve involved her being repainted and rearmed, and she was used to train boys belonging to the Marine Society. For the last two years of her service, from 1836 to 1838 she was under the nominal command of Captain Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, in his post as Captain-Superintendent of Sheerness. Kennedy had been Temeraires first-lieutenant at Trafalgar.
Sale and disposal
Kennedy received orders from the Admiralty in June 1838 to have Temeraire valued in preparation for her sale out of the service. She fired her guns for the last time on 28 June in celebration of the coronation of Queen Victoria, and work began on dismantling her on 4 July. Kennedy delegated this task to Captain Sir John Hill, commander of . Her masts, stores and guns were all removed and her crew paid off, before Temeraire was put up for sale with twelve other ships. She was sold by Dutch auctionDutch auction
A Dutch auction is a type of auction where the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer's price, or a predetermined reserve price is reached. The winning participant pays the last announced price...
on 16 August 1838 to John Beatson, a shipbreaker based at Rotherhithe
Rotherhithe
Rotherhithe is a residential district in inner southeast London, England and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, and is a part of the Docklands area...
for £5,530. Beatson was then faced with the task of transporting the ship 55 miles from Sheerness to Rotherhithe, the largest ship to have attempted this voyage. To accomplish this he hired two tug
Tug
Tuğ is a village in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan....
s from the Thames Steam Towing Company and employed a Rotherhithe pilot
Maritime pilot
A pilot is a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths. With the exception of the Panama Canal, the pilot is only an advisor, as the captain remains in legal, overriding command of the vessel....
named William Scott and twenty five men to sail her up the Thames, at a cost of £58.
Last voyage of the Temeraire
The tugs took the hulk of the Temeraire in tow at 7.30 am on 5 September, taking advantage of the beginning of the slack waterSlack water
Slack water, which used to be known as 'The stand of the tide', is a short period in a body of tidal water either side of high water or low water essentially when the water is completely unstressed, and therefore with no rise or fall of the tide and no movement either way in the tidal stream, and...
. They had reached Greenhithe
Greenhithe
Greenhithe is a town in Dartford District of Kent, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe.Greenhithe, as it is spelled today, is located where it was possible to build wharves for transshipping corn, wood and other commodities; its largest cargoes were of chalk and...
by 1.30 pm at the ebb of the tide, where they anchored overnight. They resumed the journey at 8.30 am the following day, passing Woolwich
Woolwich
Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
and then Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
at noon. They reached Limehouse
Limehouse
Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe and between Ratcliff to the west and Millwall to the east....
Reach shortly afterwards and brought her safely to Beatson's Wharf at 2 pm. The Temeraire was hauled up onto the mud, where she lay as she was slowly broken up. The final voyage was announced in a number of papers, and thousands of spectators came to see her towed up the Thames or laid up at Beatson's yard. The shipbreakers undertook a thorough dismantling, removing all the copper sheathing, rudder pintle
Pintle
A pintle is a pin or bolt, usually inserted into a gudgeon, which is used as part of a pivot or hinge.A pintle/gudgeon set is used in many spheres, for example: in sailing to hold the rudder onto the boat; in transportation a pincer-type device clamps through a lunette ring on the tongue of a...
s and gudgeon
Gudgeon
A gudgeon is a circular fitting, often made of metal, which is affixed to a surface. It allows for the pivoting of another fixture. It is generally used with a pintle, which is a pin which pivots in the hole in the gudgeon. As such, a gudgeon is a simple bearing.-Winged gudgeons:A winged gudgeon...
s, copper bolts, nails and other fastenings to be sold back to the Admiralty. The timber was mostly sold to house builders and shipyard owners, though some was retained for working into specialist commemorative furniture.
Legacy
The immediate legacy of the Temeraire was the use of the timber taken from her as she was broken up. A gong stand made from Temeraire timber was a wedding present to the future King George VGeorge V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
on the occasion of his marriage to Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
, and is held at Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
. A barometer
Barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...
, gavel
Gavel
A gavel is a small ceremonial mallet commonly made of hardwood, typically fashioned with a handle and often struck against a sound block to enhance its sounding qualities. It is a symbol of the authority and right to act officially in the capacity of a chair or presiding officer. It is used to call...
, and some miscellaneous timber are in the collections of the National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
, and chairs made from Temeraire oak are in the possession of the Royal Naval Museum
Royal Naval Museum
The Royal Naval Museum is the museum of the history of the Royal Navy in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard section of HMNB Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Defence. Its current Acting Director is Graham Dobbin....
, Portsmouth, Lloyd's Register
Lloyd's Register
The Lloyd's Register Group is a maritime classification society and independent risk management organisation providing risk assessment and mitigation services and management systems certification. Historically, as Lloyd's Register of Shipping, it was a specifically maritime organisation...
, London and the Whanganui Regional Museum, Whanganui
Whanganui
Various places in New Zealand are called Whanganui:*Whanganui, a city at the mouth of the Whanganui River, also often spelled "Wanganui", Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui District, Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui Island, Waikato Region...
. An altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
, communion rail
Altar rails
Altar rails are a set of railings, sometimes ornate and frequently of marble or wood, delimiting the chancel in a church, the part of the sanctuary that contains the altar. A gate at the centre divides the line into two parts. The sanctuary is a figure of heaven, into which entry is not guaranteed...
and two bishop's chairs
Cathedra
A cathedra or bishop's throne is the chair or throne of a bishop. It is a symbol of the bishop's teaching authority in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and has in some sense remained such in the Anglican Communion and in Lutheran churches...
survive in St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe
St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe
St Mary's Church, Rotherhithe is the local Church of England parish church in Rotherhithe, formerly in Surrey and now part of south east London. The parish is now within the diocese of Southwark and under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Fulham...
. A ship model
Ship model
Ship models or model ships are scale representations of ships. They can range in size from 1/6000 scale wargaming miniatures to large vessels capable of holding people....
of the Temeraire made by prisoners of war uses a stand made from wood taken from her, and is currently in the Watermen's Hall in London. Other relics of the Temeraire known to exist or have existed are a tea caddy
Tea caddy
A tea caddy is a box, jar, canister, or other receptacle used to store tea.The word is believed to be derived from catty, the Chinese pound, equal to about a pound and a third avoirdupois. The earliest examples that came to Europe were of Chinese porcelain, and approximated in shape to the...
made for her signal midshipman at Trafalgar, James Eaton
James Eaton
James Eaton was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served aboard at the Battle of Trafalgar; as signal midshipman, he was the first person to pass on Nelson's famous signal to the fleet; "England expects that every man will do his duty".-Career:...
, and sold at auction in 2000, the frame for an oil painting by Sir Edwin Landseer
Edwin Henry Landseer
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags...
titled Neptune, and a mantelpiece made for Beatson's office, supported by figures of Atlas
Atlas (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in north-west Africa...
supposedly taken from Temeraires stern gallery. The mantelpiece can no longer be traced, nor can a plaque once fixed to Temeraires deck commemorating Nelson's signal at Trafalgar
England expects that every man will do his duty
"England expects that every man will do his duty" was a signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805. Trafalgar was the decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars...
, nor a wooden leg made for a Trafalgar veteran from Temeraires wood. John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
foreshadowed the fate of the Temeraires wood in an essay which claimed that 'Perhaps, where the low gate opens to some cottage garden, the tired traveller may ask, idly, why the moss grows so green on its rugged wood, and even the sailor's child may not answer nor know that the night dew lies deep in the war rents of the wood of the old Temeraire.'
Art
John Christian Schetky
John Christian Schetky , Scottish marine painter, descended from an old Transylvanian family, was born in Edinburgh....
, Nicholas Pocock
Nicholas Pocock
thumb|Pocock's bird's-eye-view painting of the [[Battle of Copenhagen ]]Nicholas Pocock was a British artist best known for his many detailed paintings of naval battles during the age of sail....
, Thomas Buttersworth
Thomas Buttersworth
Thomas Buttersworth was a seaman of the Napoleonic wars period who became a maritime painter producing works to commission, and was little exhibited during his lifetime.He was born on the Isle of Wight, England...
and Thomas Whitcombe
Thomas Whitcombe
Thomas Whitcombe was a prominent British maritime painter of the Napoleonic Wars. Among his work are over 150 actions of the Royal Navy, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and the Royal Society of British Artists...
. A fictionalised depiction of her launch was produced by Philip Burgoyne. Later representations of the retired Temeraire were also popular. Though no known contemporary image of her in the prison ship role exists, she was painted in 1833 by Edward William Cooke
Edward William Cooke
Edward William Cooke, R.A., F.R.S., F.Z.S., F.S.A., F.G.S. was an English landscape and marine painter, and gardener.-Life and work:...
while a guardship on the Medway, and by William Beatson and J. J. Williams while laid up at Rotherhithe in 1838. More recently she has been the subject of paintings by Geoff Hunt
Geoff Hunt (marine artist)
Geoff Hunt PPRSMA is a renowned British maritime artist and former President of the Royal Society of Marine Artists.- Biography :Geoff Hunt is a leading figure in marine art...
. The most famous painting of Temeraire was made by J. M. W. Turner and titled The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838
The Fighting Temeraire
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838 is an oil painting executed in 1839 by the English artist J. M. W. Turner...
. Turner depicts the Temeraire on her last voyage, towed up the Thames by a small black steam tug as the sun sets. In choosing his title Turner created a enduring appellation, as previously she had been known to her crew as the 'saucy' Temeraire. Turner presented it for exhibition at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in 1839 with an accompanying excerpt, slightly altered, of Thomas Campbell's poem Ye Mariners of England.
The flag which braved the battle and the breeze,
no longer owns her.
Turner's painting achieved widespread critical acclaim, and accolades from the likes of John Ruskin and William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
. It was Turner's particular favourite, he only lent it once and refused to ever do so again. He also refused to sell it at any price, and on his death bequeathed it to the nation. It hangs today in the National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
, and in 2005 it was voted the nation's favourite painting in a poll organized by BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Today programme.
Poetry and songs
The Temeraire became the subject of a number of poems and songs commemorating her life and fate. An early work by James Duff written between 1813 and 1819 referenced her role as a prison ship, and was set to music in 1857 under the title The Brave Old Temeraire. More generally, an anonymous poem entitled The Wooden Walls of Old England appeared in Fraser's MagazineFraser's Magazine
Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country was a general and literary journal published in London from 1830 to 1882, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely directed by Maginn under the name Oliver Yorke until about 1840...
shortly after Temeraires arrival at Rotherhithe, and lamented the fate of the great sailing warships. Turner's painting created an enduring interest in the story of the Temeraire and several poems appeared in the decades following her breaking up. Gerald Massey
Gerald Massey
Gerald Massey was an English poet and self-educated Egyptologist. He was born near Tring, Hertfordshire in England.-Biography:...
wrote The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth, Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
produced The Temeraire, and Henry Newbolt
Henry Newbolt
Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH was an English poet. He is best remembered for Vitaï Lampada, a lyrical piece used for propaganda purposes during the First World War.-Background:...
wrote The Fighting Temeraire, with its closing lines
Now the sunset's breezes shiver,
And she's fading down the river,
But in England's song forever,
She's the Fighting Temeraire.